Various agricultural or other operations may result in residue covering a portion of the area addressed by the operation. In an agricultural setting, for example, residue may include straw, corn stalks, or various other types of plant material, which may be either cut or un-cut, and either loose or attached to the ground to varying degrees. Agricultural residue may result, for example, from tillage operations, which may generally cut and bury plant material to varying degrees and, accordingly, may result in residue of various sizes covering the tilled ground to various degrees. Notably, the size and coverage of residue may vary from location to location even within a single field, depending on factors such as the local terrain and soil conditions of the field, local plant coverage, residue characteristics before the instant tillage (or other) operation, and so on. Residue coverage may generally be characterized by at least two factors: percent coverage (i.e., percentage of a given area of ground that is covered by residue) and residue size (i.e., a characteristic length, width or area of individual pieces of residue).